Tuesday, November 04, 2003

A day at the hill station
Nature today is no more natural. It is likely that a child when asked to paint a picture of nature would draw a mountain, sun, and sea with some birds flying around. We tried exploring this nature.

Saturday this time had to be different. We planned to go to Nandi Hills. Situated 60km off the city at about 4851ft above the sea level the hill station is pulchritude barring the littered plastic cups and bottles. The plan was to go as far as the base of the hill and trek our way up to the top.

We started late and the added surprise was that our sumptuous breakfast was cake and fruits. After travelling in Sandeep's car for about two hours we reached a point from where we could begin our adventure by foot. The lady vending tender coconuts at that point indicated the "steps" used by the horses during the reign of Tipu Sultan () to reach the station. Horses less we were but more akin to our primitive ancestors in climbing.

The journey up the hill cannot be completely put down in words. We would climb a little, rest, admire nature, and climb again. We went as far as the old fortress of Tipu from where we traversed back to the road. The map on the top of hill showed that we had climbed from the Brahmagiri view side. We had climbed about 1000ft.

Heading forward we reached Amrita Sarovara (the ambrosia) pond that was nearly empty. We had just begun relishing the remaining food after the tiring journey when one of the monkeys called us in for a battle for apples. Scared we generously handed over the bag of apples to the little one, which accept it with great honor. After endless roaming we reached Tipu drop - a place of spectacular eye-catching beauty. The sultan used to drop his enemies down the hill. The panoramic view was enchanting.

It was time and we were to go back to the base where we had parked the car.


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